Behavior of Raw Device Mapping (RDM) disks during virtual machine deletion

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article explains how Raw Device Mapping (RDM) disks are handled when the "Delete from Disk" operation is performed on a virtual machine that has RDM disks mounted.

Environment

VMware vSphere 8.0

Resolution

When you execute "Delete from Disk" on a virtual machine with mounted RDM disks, only the RDM mapping file (pointer file) is deleted. The actual LUN used as the RDM disk remains intact. The data stored within the LUN is also preserved.

To also delete the LUN and the data stored within it, perform the following steps after deleting the virtual machine:

1. Detach the LUN from ESXi
   For specific instructions, refer to "Detach a LUN device from ESXi hosts"
   
   
2. Delete the LUN from the storage array